


Cosplay

by Oon_Jia_Wen



Series: Okikagu Week 2018 [3]
Category: Gintama
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Modern AU, Originally Posted on Tumblr, fancy parties and clothing, i no longer have any idea what to tag, was for okikagu week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:34:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24107560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oon_Jia_Wen/pseuds/Oon_Jia_Wen
Summary: Cosplays are supposed to be fun, but not when they're for fancy parties for the rich at which you're forced to do so.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It's a bit stretched in terms of the title but what the hell, it was 2 years ago anyways. I truly do love Soyo and Kagura's friendship and I had really wanted to incorporate that friendship in a fic.
Relationships: Kagura/Okita Sougo
Series: Okikagu Week 2018 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1730941
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Cosplay

She swears she loves her best friend, but she really hates her now. Soyo’s family is arranging a party to honour her 18th birthday, and the theme is a cosplay of their home country’s royal attire back in the old days. Since she’s invited to the party; Kagura has no choice but to do so. Of course, it’s not fair that her best friend is exempted from this. And even if Soyo has promised to accompany her by dressing up as well, but it makes no difference since Soyo already wears them essentially every day.

So to say the least, Kagura is not pleased when her friend drags her to fancy stores to find her an outfit. She's from China, they live in Japan, and to them, it meant that there would a degree of difficulty to find a good replica of the traditional Chinese royal attire. She has seen pictures of traditional clothing back then and is certain it will be bulky and hot, and she knows she can't stand the heat, adding to the difficulty of finding one that wasn't so stuffy. She sighs as Soyo drags her into the fifth store of the day, knows that it’s going to be a long day.  
. . .

She collapses once they reach home, onto the sofa in the flat she shared with Soyo. “I swear my poor feet are going to die.” Her dear friend merely chuckles at her predicament and a teasing glance is thrown at her. "I'm sure it wasn't so bad. I was there with you the whole time, you know."

She turns to Soyo, annoyed. "Only because you enjoyed it more than me," She gestured to the multiple shopping bags by the door. "and it's not that I don't enjoy shopping, it's just that I don't like shopping because I'm forced to shop for something I never wanted in the first place."

Her gaze turns to plead, tone begging. "Are you certain that I can't just wear something Japanese and pass off as one?"

Soyo sighs, frustration evident on her face. "If you could I wouldn't have dragged you for all the shopping earlier; your clothes are far too difficult to find. And yet my family won't give."

Her friend straightens her back, head lifting, hand waving dismissively in the air, imitating whoever forbade them from just getting a Japanese outfit. "Oh no, you and your friend can't do that. As the princess, you must set a good impression. Besides, if our other guests can do so, so can your friend. Unless she's too poor to afford it?"

Soyo growls, face frustrated and angry. "You should have seen his damn face, so bloody haughty and mighty, as if he's the king of the world, looking down on everyone."

Kagura sighs as she shakes her head, it isn't the first time her friend's family had disapproved of their friendship, telling Soyo that she shouldn't be mucking about with the dirty lower-class. Soyo shuffles over to the sofa, slumping down on it, tired and mad, grabbing a pillow to hug and bury her face it. Her friend's voice is quiet as Soyo reaches for her hand, holding it. "I'm really sorry, Kagura."

She shakes her head. "Not your fault, Soyo. That's on them." 

She squeezes Soyo's hand and they sit in comfortable silence for awhile until Soyo speaks.

"We'll have to continue shopping tomorrow though."

She groans and Soyo erupts in giggles, prompting her to throw a pillow at her best friend.

. . .

She’s standing on a stool in the middle a well-lit room, cream walls decorated with intricate mirrors, a table by the side, covered in sheets of designs. Sewing supplies littered the floor as an elderly woman reaches for a pin among a sea of them. Her arms slump slightly and the elderly pinches her arm, tsking. "Hands up."

She grits her teeth, eyes closed in the effort to prevent an insult from slipping. She takes a deep breath, opening her eyes, glaring at Soyo who stood a few feet away from her, grinning. "Mind telling me why we're here instead of a shopping mall? We- Ow!"

The lady takes her words as an insult, pinching her again, this time at the waist as she was measuring. There was hell in the lady's eyes as she speaks to her, hands at the waist. "How dare you compare me to a shopping mall?"

She glares at the woman and Soyo, whose grin merely widens. "Madame Akiko is one of the few tailors capable of creating a replica to suit your needs. And your dress is just far too difficult to come across, and even if we do, they're far too low-quality to ensure that you don't pass out from the heat and look good while you're at it."

Madame Akiko snaps haughtily at her, wagging her finger. "One of the best at tailoring, princess, not just capable of doing so."

Soyo chuckles, nodding. "Anything you say, Madame."

. . .

Weeks passed since they stepped into the tailoring room, weeks since the measurements were taken. The room is exactly like she remembers, clean and neat. She sees Madame Akiko by the table, gathering paper designs, looking up towards them at the sound of the door, signaling their arrival, nodding her head in greeting. The elderly lady gestures for them to sit down, flits towards the spacious wardrobe, searching through the mountain of dresses, hung on racks.

Madame Akiko brings out a mountain of a gown, dark red and deep. As the dress is brought closer to them, she notes the decorated hem, ① gold moutan peonies spread across the edges, curling up the dress. Gold against red; a small nod towards her country's culture. She is, in a sense, awed at the attention to detail.

"Beautiful is it not?" She looks up to see the pride in the elderly lady's eyes. "It's one of my largest projects of all time."

Soyo speaks before she does, voice awed. "It's more than I could ever imagine." 

She nods, _more than anything they could ever imagine_. "Thank you so much."

. . .

The day of the party comes faster than she finds it's supposed to. And so there she is, in one of the many rooms in the palace, seated down back facing a mirror as the artist paints her face. She hears the artist huffs as she puts down the brush, reaching for the vat of lipstick. "I mean no offense, your highness. But I do hope that I'll be paid accordingly, the traditional makeup you insisted on using for authenticity is rather difficult to come upon."

The artist pats her lips gently, leaving them when satisfied, standing a few feet with Soyo to admire the work, nodding happily. Soyo's voice is ecstatic in excitement. "You look incredible, Kagura."

She turns to look at the mirror, sees a different woman altogether and almost doesn't recognise herself. Her eyes pop out with the makeup, blue surrounded by red; her already pale skin stands out even more against the dark red fabric of her gown. Her hair is tied up in an intricate bun, adorned with a simple ➁ hairpin of yellow moutan peonies to match her gown.

Her hand reaches to touch her face and the artist slaps her hand away. "Don't ruin the makeup! It took long enough to create it. "

Shes looks at the artist sheepishly. “Thank you for doing this.”

The artist merely waves her hand, grinning cheekily. “The best returns for my work would be showing off that face of yours to the rest of the guests for me to brag about, and money of course." 

The artist gently pulls her up, smoothing down the dress for her. "Now get out there."

They all laugh as they walk out, mainly her walking carefully so to not trip over; Soyo still hasn't dressed up yet, and they're heading over to her room now to prepare. They reach close to the middle of the corridor where Soyo's room is when one of the doors slide open and they see Sougo exit the room. She notes with a sense of suspicion when she realises what he's wearing, a similar red yukata to hers with his hair slicked back, and she turns to Soyo accusingly, eyebrow raised, whispering under her breath. "What is the meaning of this?" 

Either her friend doesn't hear her or pretends not to, she's fairly certain it's the latter when Soyo smiles, saying. "Ah! Why hello, Okita"

She watches his eyes linger on her momentarily, as if shocked to see her there in an extravagant gown. He turns to greet Soyo, bowing slightly.

Soyo's smile widens into a full-blown grin she doesn't bother to hide when she says. "Since you're here already, do you mind accompanying Kagura to the ballroom?"

Her friend gestures to her body. "I'm afraid I still have to change."

Sougo protests first. "I'm sure that China is more than willing enough to wait and accompany you till then. We can wait."

"We agreed that you would see to my dressing up and I yours." She shakes her head in protest.

Soyo smiles serenely. "Well, I've changed my mind, Kagura. You shouldn't have to wait for me after all, it'll just be like normal anyways." 

Soyo turns to Sougo. "Accompany her for me, please." 

And with that her friend ducks into her room with the makeup artist, locking the door behind her, but not without a wink sent towards her.

Both her and Sougo gape at her in surprise, turning to each other uncomfortably and sighing at the princess's antics.

. . .

He escorts her to the ballroom as promised, but not without their regular arguments as they passed down corridors. It's absolutely awkward as they stand by the sidelines of the ballroom, watching as the rest of the guests mingle and dance to whatever classical music was played.

They stood out amongst the crowd, one being they weren't of the upper-class socialite, thus not knowing anyone there; two being that they stood next to each other in matching outfits, resulting in being mistaken as a couple. Many had confronted them asking why they weren't dancing, at which they were now fed up of explaining they weren't a couple. Strange looks were thrown about, but at the very least they weren't bothered after explaining.

She tries to strike up a conversation with him. "Did Soyo invite you here?"

He rolls his eyes at her questions. "No. The prince of Aliland invited me."

She glares at him, and stomps harshly on his foot. The platforms of her shoes do nothing to help him with her added strength and he winces as he curses. It doesn't take long for him to retaliate and start a stomping contest as much as it made the two of them seem like children. They're broken only when the next song strikes up, at which she's surprised by the familiar tune enough to stop stomping on his leg for a moment.

She turns to the stage, where Soyo is grinning down at her, holding a microphone, speaking into it. "A dedication to my best friend, Kagura, whose favourites pieces of music includes this song."

Soyo winks at her. "And I would be doubly grateful if the man beside her could start the first dance as a gift."

She stares at her friend in pure horror, the only reply she gets an evil smile. She feels her hand pulled and only then does she register that she's already in the middle of the dance floor. She stares at Sougo incredulously, and she wonders if he's out of his mind. "The princess is forcing our hand in front of the public, we'll have to humour, and I'm quite certain she meant it as an order for me. And don't you dare try anything funny while we're at this."

She frowns at his last comment. "I'm not stupid enough to cause a scene."

He snorts. "Wow. I didn't know that."

She has to restraint herself from kicking him in the shin.

. . .

To both their surprise (not to Soyo, but she's overjoyed with how everything turned out), they dance the whole night. When the final dance ends, he pulls her towards the balcony for fresh air, away from the crowd of people. They stand in comfortable silence, unlike their usual explosiveness of brawls. He's first to speak and break the silence. "I didn't mention before, but you look beautiful tonight."

She's shocked by how abrupt and unlike him the confession is, and she reaches out to touch his forehead. "You aren't burning up."

He pulls her hand off his forehead, sighs, not letting go when she tries to pull back. "I'm fine."

She shoots him a look like he's gone mad. "What's wrong with you today?"

He sighs again at her innocence, and in a sudden move, jerks her close, one arm snaking around her waist to hold her in place, faces inches apart. Her eyes widen with the close proximity. "Still don't get it?"

Perhaps it's the champagne that clouds her mind when she doesn't try to move or say anything. It's not sudden, she anticipates it when he presses his lips to hers, but she's still shocked. She closes hers, allows him to continue, and they stay like that for a moment until they part for air. Both their breathing is laboured, and he smirks at the sight of it. "Get it now?"

She blinks at the question, and hisses in indignation as she pulls him down for another kiss.

End.

**Author's Note:**

> ① 牡丹花, also know as Moutan peonies were flowers favoured by royalty back in ancient China as it was a symbol of wealth and elegance.
> 
> ➁ 簪子, a type of hairpin back in ancient China, was used to fasten and tie hair and was used as a representation of becoming an adult for women. Such hairpin could be made from bones, stones, shells, clay, bamboo, wood, animal horns, as well as more precious materials such as jade, copper, silver and gold, depending on the level of wealth.


End file.
